6 Things That Are Seriously Screwing With Your Sleep

The habits to avoid so you can actually get some shuteye tonight

You know most of the major offenders—a late-afternoon latte, your neighbor's yappy dog, allergies that won't quit—but there are a few other sneaky obstacles that can make it harder to get a good night's sleep. We rounded up the top factors standing in your way. Try to avoid these at all costs!

Binge-watching Mad Men
This one goes out to all of you Netflix marathoners out there: It may be wise to ease up on your habit. A survey by SleepRate found that 82 percent of Netflixers stay up later than their usual bedtimes to marathon a show—and, as a result, many of them reported getting only two to three hours of sleep a night! Understandably, 77 percent of them said that they felt sluggish after said all-nighters. Point is, we get that it's tempting—and, yes, super enjoyable—to stay up until dawn watching vampire/zombie whatever. But you know what else is enjoyable? A good night's sleep—and you're not going to get that if your night is dedicated to Netflix. So limit the marathons to weekends only from now on.

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Those Sunday Night Blues
You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach on Sunday night where you start to think about how much you have to do in the week ahead, how you're still kind of tired from the weekend, and how is it almost Monday already?! Brace yourself: A survey from the market research company Toluna Omnibus found that the feeling can actually mess with your sleep pattern. A whopping 70 percent of people surveyed said they toss and turn up to 30 minutes longer on Sundays. Plus, a quarter of people who said they typically don't have sleep issues said even they worry they'll have trouble on Sunday nights. It comes down to two things: 1) You stayed up later over the weekend, so your rhythm is out of whack, and 2) You’re so anxious about the week ahead that your mind actually keeps you awake. To get that much-needed sleep you need, try this de-stressing meditation before bed.

Sending Off Work Emails on Your Phone After 9 P.M.
You think you're being majorly productive by getting a jumpstart on tomorrow's to-do list, but actually, that plan may backfire. A study published in the journal Organizational Behaviorand Human Decision Processes found that when people used their smartphones for work after 9 P.M., they reported less sleep overall than when they avoided their cell. Here’s why: Checking email can stress you out, which keeps you up. Plus, the light on your phone also may hinder the production of melotonin, a hormone that helps you sleep better. The solution? Give your smartphone a strict bedtime, and stick to it. Plug it in away from your bed if you have to. Trust us, the "what's happening on Instagram" anxiety is far less extreme than the anxiety you'll feel by checking your email late at night.

Not Dealing with Your Stress Properly
Stress is one of the worst feelings in the world, and a new study from the journal Sleep found that the specific way in which you deal with your stress can impact your sleep patterns. Those who handed it by distracting themselves, thinking about it constantly, or ignoring it completely had higher rates of insomnia than those who handled it with positive reframing, humor, religion, and venting.

Putting Off Bedtime for Basically No Reason
We've all been there: You tell yourself you're going to go to bed at 11 P.M., but rather than tucking yourself in, you go check Instagram. Someone has a cool sunset picture, so you click on it and then start looking at other sunset pictures—all of the sudden it's 12:30 and you're still on your couch and haven't even taken your contacts out yet. Dutch researchers recently coined this behavior "sleep procrastination" in an article in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. It's a term for "failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so." (Otherwise known as what you typically do at least three nights out of the week.) To avoid getting distracted by random things at night, think of sleep as a reward after a hard day, not something you need to "get to." And consider putting a "do not disturb" function on your phone so you don’t check Insta/FB/Twitter and get lost in a feed-scrolling frenzy.